Swim!

So Sam finally had his first Swim Meet this past Saturday. Every meet that we have been able to go to has been canceled. He was so excited. We started on our way there, only to hit a downpour of rain, thunder, and lightning. UGH!!! There was a HUGE possibility we would get there and the meet woudl be canceled again. Since we were on our way, we continued on. I looked at the weather on my phone and 3 different weather sites said it was partly cloudy, with no rain! Um, what?!

We get there and there are a million of us packed in to this tiny hallway. It was a huge meet, with several different teams competing, so there were A LOT of us. They said, at that point it looked like they would cancel, but they would give it a few more minutes and then decide.

Thankfully, it cleared some, and we were able to start the meet. It was an hour late, but at least they got to swim!

With all that craziness, Sam got super nervous! He said it was worse than being in teh school play! LOL!

It was very disorganized, which made it worse. I totally wanted to get out there and get things in order! LOL!

His first race was a relay with 3 other boys from his team. Sam was the last to go in. One of the boys, stopped in the middle of his race and messed with his goggles, so their team was in last place. Sam jumped in and passed the girl in front of them, pulling them out of last. Woohoo! It was really different for him because they had to start on a starting block, which he had never done before and he had to jump OVER the boy coming in from his team, which freaked him out some, but he did great.

Too bad he just had his birthday because that moved him p in to the next age bracket. He had to compete with much bigger and older boys, but he still did great.

His next race he placed 2nd. He was in first almost the whole race and then the boy from our team that won every race pulled ahead at the last second and got 1st.

His other races went well. It was hard to tell who won most of the time, they were all right there at the finish together, so I am not sure his placement on the other races yet.

He did have a few problems, which I thought would devastate him. He is a perfectionist, just like his mommy, so he lets things get to him that he does wrong and beats himself up about it. On one of his races, he was only supposed to swim down the lane and stop at the end. Well, he forgot with all the craziness, and turned around and started back across the pool. He realized halfway down. Oops. He was super embarrassed, but it was totally fine.

One race, he did come in last, but he was right up there with the whole rest of the pack, so it wasn't like he was way behind. That upset him, but thankfully he didn't let it ruin his whole night. He actually loved the meet and can't wait to do it again! He has another meet in 2 weeks. Hopefully, it won't get canceled!

Great job, Sam!!!

Dreams Come True

So yeah, it's summer. Give me a break on the posting. Summer is for laying back and letting things go, right? Oops, it has definitely been a while since my last post. I should keep up better.

July already! Wow! Summer is half over. Sigh...

June flew by. I don't even know what we did. Craziness.

A lifelong dream came true for me this weekend! I got this.



I have wanted a piano for as long as I can remember. Not that I can play, but I have always wanted to. I took lessons for a few short months before I got pregnant with Avery and my life became one of throwing up, not moving from the couch, and all things baby. I didn't learn very much, but that's ok. I now have my piano. Yippee! I am so excited. So are the kids. I brought out my piano learning book, and really just fell right back into it. I can still play some of the things, even if they are only Mary Had a Little Lamb, Jingle Bells, and When the Saints Go Marching In. Oh, there is something from Mozart too, I believe. :) So obviously, I can still learn it. I hope to teach my self. We will see how far that goes. Avery is very excited, although he says he is not taking lessons, he will just play it by himself. Sam wants to take lessons, but only from my friend, Jen, who doesn't live close and is expensive. We'll see. I don't care. I have my piano!

Guess what else July brings? Fireworks! Oh, you knew that, didn't you. I really wasn't too excited and didn't feel like doing them or taking pictures. Bad Mom.


The boys ahhhing at the first few fireworks


Avery sparklering


Sam sparklering


This is what Avery liked to do with his sparkler


Ahhh, Sam's arm is on fire! No, not really. Cool effect.

Oh, and the most important thing to happen this July.... Sam's 10th Birthday! How in the world did that happen?! 10 years old!


We pretty much celebrated this whole weekend. he didn't want a party again this year, so we made sure to make this birthday special. We started on Friday by going to Nashville Shores. It is a Water Park here in Nashville. It wasn't nearly as much fun as we wanted it to be. It was really crowded and people didn't care about anyone around them. I don't know how many times Sam got hurt. Nice. Holiday World is definitely better. Oh well, tons of money down the drain. We also went ahead and took him to Target to pick out some of his presents. This kid is expensive. All electronics and he is only 10! Greeaaattt.

Saturday we went swimming and he got his most favorite present of all. An Ipod! He LOVES it! I put a ton of songs on there, it has a video camera, he got new headphones, and an alarm clock docking station. Fun, fun!

Sunday was a typical day, besides the fireworks.

Yesterday, AJ was still off. They got haircuts. What fun! ;)Linds and fam came over for Brownies (Sam's version of birthday cake).

Today is his actual birthday, but AJ had to go back to work, and we have our normal stuff to do, so this weekend was his special time. Although I will get him his favorite tonight for dinner, Mexican! Yum, my favorite too. :)

Happy, Happy Birthday, Sam! I hope it is an awesome year!


Don't mind Avery's nakedness. He would be totally naked if he could. Weirdo.



And of course, Avery couldn't let Sam have all the picture taking fun.